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Friday, 27 September 2013

Please Vote No on Oct 4th 2013

By asking people to Vote YES, on October 4th, Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein are asking for people to go far beyond abolition of the Seanad.

By asking people to vote YES the Government are asking the Irish people to do two things:1. abolish the Seanad.2. remove all reference to the Seanad from the constitution.

One such reference is contained within Article 27 which mentions “both Houses of the Oireachtas”. Article 27 is entitled “Reference of Bills to the People”. It gives power to the people of Ireland to express their views on a piece of legislation which contains “a proposal of such national importance that the will of the people thereon ought to be ascertained.”

So rather than propose an amendment to this Article, the Government would have us remove an Article of fundamental importance in its totality.

This is clearly an attempt to grab power not from other parts of the Oireachtas but from the people. Article 27 and article 47.2, which the Government is also seeking to delete, invest in the people real power to veto legislation that contains proposals of national importance.

In Government Fine Gael has demonstrated absolute intolerance of any criticism. They have craftily manipulated and maneuvered and when all else failed expelled all dissenting voices.

Their disdain for democracy does not deserve to be rewarded with greater dictatorial powers. Sinn Fein’s collusion with Fine Gael on this issue is motivated entirely by their ambition for dictatorial type powers if they get into government in the future.